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Discovery Education

So far, the best, and most difficult, portion of the project has been data collection. Collecting data is time-consuming; however, it is definitely worth the effort. After all, who does not enjoy a good experiment? Read more

Now that my invention is getting closer and closer to being invented, I'm starting to see that everything I've been doing has been part of a quest. But at the end of my quest, there's no treasure--like most heroic quests, my journey ends with doing my part to make the world a better place.

And also like most journeys, the biggest challenge is finding out where you have to go, and how to get there. For me, this involved a lot of tough decisions and research into unknown territory, but in the end I learned that having a clear view of your goal is very important to succeed Read more

Hello again! I’ve had a great summer working on my project! I have learned so much from my research and experiments. My mentor, Dr. Del, has taught me all about what it’s like to be a professional scientist. The best part of the process so far has been brainstorming new ideas! Read more

Hello Fellow Scientists, All this research for the past couple of weeks has really got me to think that I'm ready to move forward with my new innovation. This week I started to gather materials and creating a experimental procedure. Read more

The Discovery 3M Young Scientist Challenge has been such an amazing experience so far. I have learned so much during this summer in the collaboration with my 3M mentor, Dr. Thunhorst. I also had the pleasure to meet Dr. Haugen, a 3M fuel cell specialist, who has given expert advice as well. Read more

These past weeks have truly been filled with hours of planning, designing, and hard work! I realized that before you can get to the hands-on part of the scientific journey, you have to plan out your experiment. But that's the easy part, right? Wrong. In the beginning of the process, it had seemed to me that the planning part of my experiment was the easiest and least time consuming. Read more

This week, I collected information that may benefit the remainder of my project.

It would be nearly impossible to conduct any experiment without research to provide background information necessary to create a hypothesis, or educated prediction of the test results. It is often useful to know detailed information about your topic in order to avoid “discovering” facts that are already known. Read more

I have been working hard on the design for my project. It is fun but challenging! I enjoy figuring out a way to solve the problems that I am having. I have also done some research about the problems that I have. Read more

Thomas Edison tried nearly 2000 different filaments for his light bulb before one finally worked. Bill Gates said, "It's fine to celebrate success, but even more important to heed the lessons of failure". My research over the past few weeks has enabled me to experience this lesson first-hand. Read more

Before experiencing it myself, I thought invention was all about creativity. Why not? It’s definitely a huge part of it—thinking of new, unheard of ways to tackle a common problem. But, again, things aren’t always what they first appear to be. Invention, in practice, is the result of a lot of creativity paired with a TON of knowledge about both the problem itself and the science that makes up your solution. Read more